Page 6 of The Liar's Wife

“Grant Anderson!” Howie cried, practically jumping for joy.

“What?”

“He said Grant Anderson, baby,” Dannika shouted with a gleeful cry, arms in the air. “Top forty, under forty, CEO of three out of four of Oceanside’s leading startups, filthy rich, devilishly handsome, and he wants you to plan Anderson Enterprises’ third anniversary party. There’s an email in your inbox, but I believe his exact words were…”

She looked at Howie, who finished the sentence for her, his arms out to his sides. “Spare no expense!”

“You guys are kidding. Come on, it’s not funny to tease a new mom,” I said, already moving my mouse to start up the computer.

“Honest to God,” Dannika said, hands up to show her innocence.

“Why me?” There were two hundred eighty-three unread emails in my inbox. I began to scroll.

“Well, as the CEO of theotherleading Oceanside startup, Dan may have dropped a few hints that he was planning to have you plan his anniversary party at a fundraising event Anderson attended. Anderson’s alwayslooking to one-up GloTech. Two days later, we got the call.”

“Oh my gosh, I could kiss him!” I cry as I finally reach the email. “Ben and I are taking you two out for a nice dinner, you know that?”

Howie beamed. “Oh, no need…but if you insist, we’ll have steak.” He winked. “Anyway, Anderson’s super excited to work with you, and Cumberland is, of course, thrilled that we got the deal. If you can pull this off, you’ll be Cumberland royalty.”

“She already is,” Dannika said. “That’s why she gets the best clients.” She lowered her voice. “After this deal, we’ll finally have enough to break away and start our own company. And the clients he sends will be comingyourway, not Cumberland’s.”

I swallowed. It was something we’d talked about since we graduated, but it still seemed too unrealistic. Especially now, with a baby. Insurance alone would keep me working there for much longer than I liked to think about. “Maybe,” I said.

“Come on, babe. We’ve got this.” Dannika tapped the frame on my desk, where my favorite quote sat.

If you don’t take risks, you’ll always work for someone who does. -Nora Denzel

With three kids, but a lawyer for a husband, Dannika’s risks weren’t exactly the same as mine. If she knew I’d had my share of our startup in savings for over a year now, she’d be so upset, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. The risks still terrified me. As brave as I wanted to be, my comfort zone wasn’t such a bad place to be.

Before I could respond, I watched as Mr. Cumberland appeared in my doorway. “Palmer, welcome back. We’ve missed you.”

“Yeah, you’re such a hero, Palmer. Coming back to workless than two weeksafter having a human literally exit your body,” Howie said, enunciating the words. “Even before your doctor cleared you.”

Mr. Cumberland nodded enthusiastically, not realizing—or caring—the comments were sarcastic. “Palmer’s a fighter, always has been.”

Dannika rolled her eyes, not bothering to hide her irritation. “It would really be a shame if she were able to take more time off, wouldn’t it?”

“Why on earth would she want to do that?” he asked. “Did they already tell you about your client meeting today? Big deal!” His fingers rubbed together, gesturing that I’d make a lot of money, ergo,he’dmake a lot of money.

“They mentioned Grant Anderson, yes,” I said, smiling politely. I didn’t have enough energy to hate the man standing in front of me. Not for being unwilling to give me paid time off, not for not even mentioning Gray, not even for expecting me to jump straight into work. I just didn’t have it in me.

Dannika’s brows shot up, and I knew she wanted me to admit she was right. If we had our own business, I could work from home when I needed to. She could’ve taken on the extra clients to give me the time off with Gray.

Someday…

Mr. Cumberland sat down in front of my desk. “I needed to talk to you two about the month’s numbers, anyway. Howie, can you send Ethan in?”

“Sure thing,” Howie said, stepping back from the office at his apparent dismissal.

Already, we were in a business meeting.

Welcome back.

“Well,I can certainly look into the ice sculpture of your logo. We hire a company in Oceanside that handles them. You’ll love their work. We could even have them do the Anderson Enterprises name and then the logo below, if you’d like. I can have them draft up a few options for you to choose from.”

Grant Anderson nodded, his eyes trained on his phone. He wasn’t really listening and kept having to have me repeat things.

“Does that work?”